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Friday, May 17, 2013

Starved Rock: Flowers, Falls, Photos

Spring at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. It was my third trip to this curious park and the first when I got the full effect of the fact that it gets 4 million visitors a year. I was there on Mother's Day and apparently a LOT of people think the park is a great place to take mothers for Mother's Day. But the flowers were lovely, the falls full of water, and the beautiful chorus of migrating birds, audible when I was not too close to the crowds.

Here's a sample of the pictures I shot. (You can see more on my flickr page.)

Flowers:

The bluebells were not only lovely but spectacularly plentiful in many parts of the park.

The white (and red) trilliums were harder to find. This one was in a shady spot not far from the head of St. Louis Canyon where hundreds of people were clambering about the rocks.

The May Apple blossoms are always hard to spot, being hidden below the large leaves close to the ground. Here's a worm's-eye view. There were large swaths of May Apples throughout the park, but most people walked on by them without a second glance.

Falls:

There were large falls, like this one in LaSalle Canyon...

And small ones, like this one in Illinois Canyon.

Photos:

There were kids shooting photos of other kids...

Parents shooting photos of their kids...

Lovers shooting photos of each other...

And strangers asked to shoot photos of lovers.

As the (presumed) parents stood there shooting, one of the three kids on the cliff called out, "Should we be doing this?" (There is abundant signage throughout the park prohibiting rock climbing.)

I went out early Monday morning, after the Mother's Day crowds had gone back home. For over two hours I had the park to myself. It was very peaceful.